UNHCR Launches HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign Among High-Risk Groups in Nepal
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Tuesday launched a six-month HIV/AIDS awareness campaign among high-risk groups in six districts of Nepal, Xinhua/People's Daily reports (Xinhua/People's Daily, 10/16). The campaign, which received funding from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, will be channeled through UNAIDS and implemented in the districts by the General Welfare Pratisthan, Knight Chess Club and Maiti Nepal, All Headline News reports (Islam, All Headline News, 10/17).
The campaign will include HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness activities. It will be implemented in the Nepalese districts of Ilam and Panchthar in the east, as well as in the midwestern districts of Dang, Jumla, Banke and Jajarkot. GWP will implement awareness and prevention programs for commercial sex workers in the Banke district, and KCC will establish two drop-in centers and one voluntary counseling and testing center for injection drug users in Ilam. Maiti Nepal will run programs in Dang, Jumla, Jajarkot, Ilam and Panchthar (Nepal News, 10/16). UNHCR also is launching a condom promotion program in 15 districts in Nepal, Xinhua/People's Daily reports.
"This new program is a result of a joint U.N. assessment undertaken in November 2006 in Banke, Ilam and Kathmandu, and I am confident that together with these nongovernmental organizations, we can better respond with respect to the protection and prevention of HIV/AIDS," UNHCR Nepal Representative Abraham Abraham said in a statement (Xinhua/People's Daily, 10/16).
